DanburyBowhunter wrote:Let me preface this post with letting you know I am a chemist.

In order to get things truly clean, dirt and oil free, you need soap. This is because soap forces things that don't like water to to into the wash water and down the drain. Detergents stop things in water from redepositing on your clothing. Baking soda will help essentially working like a gentle oxygen bleach. So, I would recommend laundry detergent of some type. With or without baking soda I see no chemical/functional reason to say either way is better so personal choice should rule that one.

Based on the above, with the detergent doing it's job of cleaning the clothes, as well as stopping things from redepositing on the clothes, wouldn't the baking soda be a wasted effort, since the soap may prevent it from depositing on the clothes? I thought the baking soda was meant to absorb or neutralize any scent on the clothes. If the soap washes it down the drain, would the baking soda be doing anything if combined with the soap?

I'm not in the detergent business but here are my thoughts from basic principles:

Soap keeps things that don't like to be in water in the water (oils, dirt). Baking soda would act essentially like a bleach. Since baking soda is not oil like at all but in fact really likes water (high solubility, like table salt). I don't forsee it redepositing on the laundry because it prefers water to cloth. It may be a problem if you have really hard water though but I'm not sure. If you really want to learn the details, google and wikipedia are good places to start.

It is a hard heart that kills. If your killer instincts are not clean and strong you will hesitate at the moment of truth.

Very interesting discussion. So, it seems to me that if we are trying to limit our human scent presence while hunting, baking soda would be most helpful in the dry form: on our clothes and body, and around us, like in a sachet, so that it can absorb scent(which is what it does in the fridge, right?) Since it mostly disolves in water, seems to me that most of it would be down the drain, not in the clothes when the cycle is over. As far as using it in the laundry for scent control, I guess putting it in the final rinse makes the only sense, since that is not further washed away with another rinse! Anyone follow this line of thinking?

My hunting clothes don't get overly dirty, but do get a bit smelly early in the season. I take a tub with water and a couple cups of baking soda outside and wash my clothes in the tub then just hang to dry. I figure the baking soda stays in the clothes after it dries and helps with odor.

Been off the grid for awhile.Results: had a deer come within 20yds of me while on the ground and could not figure out what I was. Unfortunately he could see the steam from my breath. However, I'm sure I had no UV glow so I continue to use Sun and Earth laundry detergent. Managed to get a quality shot.. right up until the arrow hit a branch I could not see. It was a great rush to be that close and not get busted. Oh, and I was downwind/crosswind too.

It is a hard heart that kills. If your killer instincts are not clean and strong you will hesitate at the moment of truth.